One type of vacuum cleaner has a head and a body. The head contacts the ground and includes a sucking aperture, and the body has a handle. The body is pivotable between an upright position storage position and an inclined use position. In some vacuum cleaners, such as a Dyson DC15 vacuum cleaner, the body is pivotable laterally with respect to the head, as well as towards and backwards from the head, thereby allowing the vacuum cleaner to be steered around obstacles more easily. The Dyson DC15 vacuum cleaner achieves this by supporting the body and the head on a ball instead of on wheels. The body and the head are connected to the ball such that the ball and the body are pivotable laterally relative to the head, and such that the ball is rotatable, thereby also allowing the ball to function like a wheel.
The Dyson DC15 vacuum cleaner also has a pair of rear support wheels which can be fixed in a ground-contacting position to enable the body to be maintained in the upright storage position. The rear support wheels are mounted on a support structure, and the support structure is rotatably mounted on the body. When the vacuum cleaner is in use, the rear support wheels and the support structure can be released from the fixed ground-contacting position, thereby allowing the body to pivot laterally relative to the head.
The inventors are concerned with toy vacuum cleaners, particularly toy vacuum cleaners in which the body is pivotable laterally relative to the head. The present inventors believe that a toy vacuum cleaner having such a rear movable support is not optimally safe for children. For example the moveable rear support may lead to a child being hurt. Also, it is desirable to reduce the number of moving parts on toys to increase robustness. This also decreases the possibility that the toy may be broken, which may expose dangerous sharp edges.
The inventors have reduced the above drawback relating to toy vacuum cleaners by providing toy vacuum cleaners in which the body can be maintained more easily in the upright storage position. These vacuum cleaners also preferably retain the ability of the body to pivot laterally relative to the head.
The inventors have also realised that the improvements to toy vacuum cleaners are also applicable to real vacuum cleaners.